Walk Out Through The Fallout
by Leighce
Summary: four friends are transported into a world they never thought existed, lost, confused and just trying to get home, what's the bet that they'll make it harder then it needs to be?
1. Chapter 1

**A.N)** hi, so... I have never done anything like this before, I ask that criticism is constructive and not an attempt at trolling, 'cause I really won't care if that is the case. Without further ado, welcome to my mind...

 **My survival guide to the wasteland**

Cara's fingers drummed against the steering wheel with the beat of the music as she drove towards the coffee shop, the air around her was relaxed and calm as usual. She made a turn and smirked at the luck of getting a parking spot directly outside of the coffee shop.

She walked in contently, ordered a chocolate milkshake and flirted a little with the girl behind the counter before she felt her phone vibrate. She shared an amused smile with the girl as she pulled out her phone to check the text, already knowing what would be there.

'are you done flirting yet?' Cara rolled her eyes with a fond smile before turning her attention back to the beauty behind the counter

"can you take a break? Our friends are getting annoyed" the blond raised an amused eyebrow

"are zey now? Well, we cannot 'ave zat now, can vee?" the French woman purred seductively

"definitely not, shall we Raven?" Cara offered her arm to the still apron clad waitress who gave an amused smirk before taking the offered arm.

Raven allowed herself to be led towards the table of 5 with two spare seats next to each other that was filled by 4 computer screens and various beverages

"what's up weirdos, Amy, Wolfie?" Cara greets with a smile, Amy rolls her eyes at the amendment with a small fond smirk while {Paulette, commonly known as Wolfie}, smiles and greats her with a cheerful "morning"

"Cara" Jack greets with a nod, as both Mike and Michelle stand to hug the woman, Cara sits beside Amy and greets her with a kiss to the cheek while Raven took the last free seat in between Cara and Paulette.

"so, why are we here?" Cara asks, her playful mask gone and replaced with her more curious nature

"um, here's the thing, we're in a question quest" Jack stutters, unsure how Cara will react

"we're in a what?!" Cara demands

"a question quest, you know… like fallout or Skyrim where the path leads to alternative endings" Jack responds

"how did ya manage that then?" with just a hint of an Irish accent Amy asks ending her silence

"we found a book…" Jack begins hesitantly

"what book? Where?" Raven questions, intrigued more than annoyed

"it was lying on the Livingroom table when we got home from college, Jack opened it then all of a sudden we're in this world, and _they_ existed" Mike answers pointing towards Raven, Amy and Michelle

"so, you found, a book" Cara drawls sceptically, the twins nod cautiously

"how do we get out; my parents will freak out if they notice I'm missing" Wolfie questions worriedly

"it's ok mon amie, we will get out of 'ere" Raven assures her

"if we can figure out why we're in here in the first place, ya mean" Amy drawls

"well, maybe I can help" a voice interrupts the animate table, all turn to find a man dressed in expensive clothing and sporting a condescending smile, who had seemingly appeared from thin air

"you see my name is Maximillian and I have brought you here"

"why?" Cara demands, her voice cold

"well you see, I was bored and due to your own question quest game, I decided you may appreciate this"

"what are we supposed to do?"

"what about our parents?"

"how do we get back?" those questions and more flew from the mouths of those gathered much to Maximilian's amusement, the… _clones?_ Remained silent, Michelle being a smarter version of Michael while Raven and Amelia were lighter and darker versions of Cara, respectively, found nothing to contribute to this discussion, and so they lent their support to a worried Wolfie and concerned Cara, having been programmed to care for their original and who she cares for, seeing as Jack and Mike had each other for comfort and Michelle for that matter they decided that their efforts would be best used comforting the two women.

"enough!" Cara snaps, making everyone fall silent at the sharpness of her tone

"now, Maximillian, why are we here and how do we leave?"

"why would you ever want to leave a world of your own creation?" he returns, Cara's glare turns icy

"because we have responsibilities and families who will worry about us, we have lives"

"but think about how much fun it would be to become immortal or be able to travel the wasteland, I know you of all would like that very much Miss Evans" Cara's jaw clenches

"maybe so, but I have a mother who needs me because she's lost, and a father who's an idiot, I need to be there for my family"

"shame" is all he mutters, unfortunately the condescending smirk that continues graces his face adds to Cara's worries far more then placating them

"we're not getting out of here until we participate, are we?" came the defeated sigh

"nope" the man chuckles

"then what do we do?"

"you play my game, in exchange you win your freedom, now I think its time for your counterparts to, disappear" before their eyes, Raven, Amelia and Michelle vanish, Mike and Cara topple over in pain, their forms ripple as though they aren't completely material before solidifying, finally Mike returns to his sitting position while Cara's form ripples again and she cries out in pain, worrying her friends until she too straightens, but her forehead is covered in sweat and she looked exhausted

"son of a mother fucking cock sucking bitch, that fucking hurt" she growls, making Jack and Mike brake out in nervous laughter while Wolfie hovers worriedly near the woman

"you son of a bitch!" Jack then proceeds to attempt to punch Maximillian but fails and stumbles because it seems that Maximillian is a hologram, lovely, Jack glowers, his rage mounting a new

"now you listen to me you self-centred mother fucker, if we don't get out of here, I will personally rip this universe and…"

"and what Jack, annoy him to death?" Cara interjects

"I was trying to be intimidating!" Jack snaps, she smirks

" _trying,_ being the operative word, how would you have got out of here to rip the universe apart if we _can't_ get out of here in the first place?"

"don't put logic to my threats" he sulks

"so…" Mike takes over, annoyed by the banter while he was literally freaking out "where are we going?" desperation leaked into his voice

"you'll see, goodbye for now, oh and do put on a good show, I'll be watching" the light faded and the four felt like they were floating, all they could hear was their own panic, and somehow, they had linked hands desperate for some form of contact.

Ominous music, western in tune begins to play, the sound of dirt scraping against metal, they were all kneeling face down on the ground, Cara is the first to regain some mental capacity and reaches out a cold hand for one of her friends, only to find herself alone, her panic mounts, again and she attempts to call out only to find herself gagged

"you got what you were after, so pay up" a gruff voice demands, Cara looks down at her hands to find them bound by a long piece of rope, and twists trying to break them

"you're crying in the rain paly" a suave voice catches her attention

"guess who's waking up over here" she looks up to find three men, two wearing gang outfits looking like they have more buff then brains while the last is clad in a checked suit with grease backed hair and is smoking a cigarette, she recognises the man but can't place him

"time to cash out" he drops his cigarette, steps on it and walks towards the girl with a smug smirk on his features

"would you get it over with!" one of the thugs pipes up but the checkered man silences him with a wave of his hand

"maybe Khans kill people without looking them in the face but I ain't a fink, dig?" the man looks at Cara as he reaches into his jacket

"you've made your last delivery kid" he produced a platinum poker chip before returning it to the pocket in his jacket

"I'm sorry you got twisted up in this scene" he now has a gun, a very distinctive hand gun that had Cara not been fearing for her life, she would appreciate such a gun

"from where you're kneeling it must seem like an 18kt run of bad luck" he points it at her head

"the truth is… the game was rigged from the start" 'fuck, I'm in Fallout' she realizes as he fires.

Straining, she opens her eyes, to see the blurry form of a ceiling fan

"you're awake, how about that" a tired, weathered voice sounds from beside her, she rolls over and sits up clumsily, one thing you don't realise is how nauseous the whole ordeal makes the character, she felt like vomiting only to realise that she had an empty stomach. The room spins as she moves, and hands reach out to steady her

"whoa, easy there, easy" the man implores, he was Caucasian, bald and had a white moustache

"you've been out cold a couple of days, why don't you just relax a second, get your bearings" he straightens in his seat and begins to mutter to himself as Cara zones out

"hey? I asked if you have a name" he pats her cheek to gain her attention

"it's Raven" she answers not without difficulty

"well, that's not what I'd have picked but if that's your name… I'm Dc Mitchell, welcome to Goodsprings…" Raven zones out again only to be handed a Pip-boy with a mans face on it, so character customization was still a thing it seemed, finished and happy with her appearance she ignores the Doctor for the most part, skipping through the S.P.E.C.I.A.L and skill tests until she is happy with the overall stats, she loots his house to come away with an assortment of food, weapons, stimpacks and assorted junk.

She follows the Doctor to the door and is given her old inventory, a vault suit that is quickly thrown over her underwear, uncomfortable being so underdressed in front of the stranger and a Pib-Boy that is equipped to her arm as the Doctor talks about his life, and wife

"well, thanks for patching me up Doc"

"don't mention it, your politer then some of the others I'll give you that"

"others?"

"yup, two girls and a death claw, don't know how or why they tamed it, but it showed up looking for the brunette, Michelle I think, thing nearly killed us, but she managed to calm it down, the folks here tolerate it but they're not happy about it"

"where can I find them?" she demands

"they're held up in the old saloon, while you're there you might want to talk to Sunny Smiles, she can help you learn to fend for yourself in the desert, some of the other folks in the saloon might be able to help you out, too. And that metal fella, Victor, you pulled you lot out of your graves. Anyway, if you get hurt again just come on over to me and I'll patch you up, now try not to get killed anymore." Giving a cheeky little salute the woman jumps when a notification appears in front of her, but the Doctor has no reaction, hardcore mode, hardcore mode has been switched on and cannot be changed.

"fuck"

"huh?" the man replies

"thank you again Doc" she quickly escapes the small home.

Before anything else Raven activated her Pip-Boy, it had three buttons, not quite as high tech as Fallout 4's Pip-Boy but it got the job done she figured, after going through all the stats, finding some glasses in her inventory and equipping them and finding the radio station to have some music, she faced the little town of Goodsprings with a confidant step but heavy heart.

 **until next time bitches ;)**


	2. Chapter 2

**The Road to Vengeance**

"the Doc said you were a Deathclaw, I didn't want to believe it though" Raven says in way of greeting to the three who were sitting on the porch of the saloon

"why not? Deathclaws are cool" the reptilian muzzle opens in protest, Raven can't help but watch in fascinated horror as the sharp teeth scrape together and bits of flesh flap around the maw

"how about the fact that you'll be hunted anytime you get anywhere near a human settlement!" Ravens voice gradually raises until she is yelling

"let them try!" the beast boasts, Raven raises an unimpressed eyebrow and produces a combat knife, the Deathclaw takes an uneasy step back

"where did you get that?" Jack stutters in fear

"it slipped into my fingers, now you listen to me you annoying pain in my ass, we need to get out of here, we need to be able to talk to people and go into settlements without them going hostile, what the fuck was going through your head when you decided to be this?!" Raven continues to rant

"I was thinking, 'oh god, oh god, he's going to kill me, I wish I was the biggest thing in fallout.'" Raven sheaths the knife and proceeds to facepalm

"can you choose something else?" Jacks giant head shakes negatively

"nope, I'm stuck like this" Raven sighs

"fine, I'm done ranting, after this… you are a fucking idiot and you've just made getting home 10 times harder"

"I get it ok, and I'm sorry to inconvenience you" Jack whines, to be honest the image of an overgrown Deathclaw cowering before a tiny human woman was comical, but she truly did scare him at times

"so, what are your stats?"

"our what?" Wolfie asks

"your stats, S.P.E.C.I.A.L and perks?" Raven responds

"oh, I chose melee, barter and speech" Wolfie replies

"uh, melee, unarmed and explosives" Michelle adds, with a proud smile

"melee, survival and unarmed" Jack is the last to respond

"so, you all chose melee? Why?" she was honestly curious, as she would never imagine using melee weapons in a fallout game, even one she hadn't played in years

"I'm a Deathclaw, pretty self-explanatory" Jack Snarks

"I just fancied it" Michelle shrugs

"I don't like guns, like I'm fine around people who use them but I'm not comfortable using them myself, what did you choose?" Wolfie returns

"guns, sneak and speech, my usual build"

"that seems pretty boring" Michelle comments

"I wasn't about to go through this more blind then I already am, it's been years since I've played New Vegas, and I'm a sniper at heart, it's what I know and what I'm best at in the Fallout universe"

"so, what's the plan, Captain?" Jack smiles, it is truly grotesque when he does that

"Captain?" Raven frowns

"yeah, you know how to take charge, so Captain, unless you'd like something else like Sargent or General?"

"uh, how about we stick with Raven?" she decides

"sure, sure. So, what's the plan?" he repeats

"who wants to meet with Sunny?" she responds

"I'll go, I know very little about this franchise so I could use all the help I could get" Wolfie admits

"I don't think all of us need to go, plus Jack's probably not welcome" Michelle points out

"shall I take that as you volunteering to stay with him, Elle?" Raven smirks, Michelle curses under her breath

"but you're probably right, you and Jack should search Goodsprings, check anything that doesn't glow red and pick up anything at a 5-1 cap to weight ratio, or caps, ammo, just… you get the idea, we'll meet back at the tavern at noon, ok?"

"sure" Jack nods

"sounds good" Michelle agrees

"okay" Wolfie shrugs

"where are you going Raven?" Michelle questions, Raven gives a grin and snakes her arm around Wolfies shoulder

"I'm going to keep our little novice safe, we don't know if we respawn after we die, or how anything works here, you to have each other, until we know more I would rather if we didn't spilt-up any less than pairs"

"that seems fair" Jack nods, Raven turns towards the body under her arm and gives a charming smirk

"so, you and me beautiful?" Wolfie shrugs noncommittally with a smile

"sure"

A bark sounds as they enter the saloon and Raven immediately has a sense of Deja-vu as they come face to face with a woman, their height, soft face, brown hair and a gun strapped to her back

"Cheyenne stay. Don't worry, she won't bite unless I tell her to" the woman, Sunny Smiles, greets, interestingly the screen flashes with the name of the NPC but not themselves

"cool, so the Doc said you could teach us to survive in the desert?" Raven prompts

"yeah, I guess there are a few things I could teach you, sounds like you lot need all the help you can get. Hey, weren't there more of you?" Sunny frowns

"uh, yeah, Michelle is sticking with the Deathclaw, to keep him calm" Wolfie responds

"oh, right, that would probably be a good idea, so, meet me outside, behind the saloon" Sunny races out of the Saloon through the back without allowing them a chance to respond, their only choice is to follow.

They are handed a vermin rifle each and told to take aim at the row of sunset sarsaparilla on the fence, Raven found this quite simple after adjusting to the recoil due to her own experience with air rifles, being British and not having enough money for a license meant that she was not used to those kinds of weapons, yet. Wolfie… well Wolfie was less successful, she disliked guns on principle, had no experience using them, and the NPC was only programmed to know so much, therefore after several misfires Raven holstered her weapon

"ok, babe, stop" Wolfie did as asked and Raven came behind her to take note of her stance

"your hands are shaking too much, kneel on one leg" once done Raven followed

"ok, put one elbow on your knee, that's it, now the end of the stock to your shoulder, no the other one, now one hand on the trigger and the other on the fore stock, no that's there, um, hold on…" Raven snakes her arms around Wolfie, takes hold of the weapon and positions it appropriately, she turns to continue her instructions when she notices Paulette looking at her in an unusual manner, smiling softly she turns both of their attentions back to the firearm

"ok, now aim, deep breath, hold it, and fire" the recoil startles Wolfie so much that she drops the rifle and jumps more securely into Ravens embrace

"hey, its ok, it's just the recoil, sorry I forgot to mention that" had the twins been there they would be surprised to see Raven talking so gently to anyone, would you believe that she wasn't the type? usually at least.

After calming Wolfie, Raven talked her through the other two shots not that Wolfie was very keen on using the weapon for longer than necessary, though she was grateful that Raven helped her end the ordeal quickly, just as the bullet grazed the last bottle their attention was literally pulled towards Sunny

"we'll that's a start, but I don't recon you came to me to learn how to fight sarsaparilla bottles. Tell you what, I gotta go chase away geckos from our water supply anyway, darn critters are attracted to it. Why don't you both come along?"

"do we have to use guns?" Wolfie returns, Sunny blinks blankly

"no?" the huntress responds hesitantly

"oh, good" Wolfie smiles in relief, unobservant to the hesitancy, Raven however caught it and smirked as she realized that the NPC was programmed to be self-aware, in a sense, she found that to be very interesting

"do you have a melee weapon, love?" Raven prodded

"not that I'm aware" her friend responded

"ok, open your inventory" Raven directed

"uh, how?" Raven then proceeded to help Wolfie open her inventory through the Pip-Boy, after teaching her all of the categories and what they entail

"ok, let's see, you have one 9mm pistol, one straight razor with bonus critical damage, the rifle that you are currently using, your vault suit, 4 stimpacks (that's instant healing medicine) 18 bottle caps, 6 bobby pins and some ammo, I will trade you 2 combat knives and 6 stimpacks for your guns and ammo" Raven barters

"oh, you don't have to, I'd never use the guns anyway" Wolfie stammers

"I know, and I won't use the knives" Raven winks

"what about the medicine?"

"oh, I managed to pass a few speech checks and looted his place, I got a total of 16 stimpacks, including an energy pistol, some drugs, caps and a pair of glasses, which I was glad for. Anyway, the point is that you're a novice, and though I've not played this game in a while I know what I'm doing, I want to give you your best chance, so I'll split my packs and we each get 10"

"I mean, if you're sure" Wolfie shrugs, Raven nods with a smile and they trade.

After killing geckos, saving a civilian, earning 50 caps each and creating Healing Powder, Raven and Wolfie return to the town with several gecko pelts, a plethora of meat (and a new shovel as her standard weapon in Wolfie's case) and the location of some lootable locations that shall be visited after meeting with the twins and greeting the proprietor of the saloon, Trudy.

"hey boys…" Raven clears her throat "I mean Jackal, Mouse"

"hey Raven" Michelle laughs, hugging the awkward woman

"hey Paulette" she then hugs the other, less awkward woman before returning to her seat

"Raven, Paulette" Jack nods, again Raven stares fascinated by the grotesque imagery

"hey" Wolfie waves

"so, what have you got?" Raven claps excitedly, snapping out of her fascination

"well we have 6 skill books, some sunset sarsaparilla and a snow globe that we picked up out of curiosity but now can't drop" Jack answers

"huh, it must be a quest item, did any notifications appear after you picked it up?" Raven replies

"yup, it said something about collectors paying a lot of money for them" Michelle responds

"them? Ooh, it must be a collectable, like the bobbleheads from Fallout 3 and 4, interesting"

"so, what about you two?" Jack questions

"we were taught how to shoot, killed some Geckos and saved a civilian making us accepted in the community" Wolfie answers

"and I got to flirt with the hot huntress, so that's a plus" Raven smirks

"how are you suck a good flirt?" Jack questions exasperated

"well I am devilishly good looking so that's a plus" she chuckles before continuing "just kidding. If someone catches my eye I tend to just walk over and say 'hi, my name is… I couldn't help but notice that you're really pretty/handsome' on the rare occasions that it's a guy, it usually goes well for me but sometimes they are too dense or deliberately being obtuse. See the trick is to be casual, if you say it in a suggestive manner people will think you're a creep, and if you're shy people usually take pity on you. Usually their response is one of three, either 'eww, get the fuck away from me you freak' which I always laugh at, 'awe thank you, you're sweet' which generally means they're not into you or 'you're not so bad yourself, I'm…' which means I am defiantly up for this, they may just want to flirt which I am always up for" Raven replies

"there's the Raven we all know, lengthy but sometimes interesting rambles" Jack jokes, Raven snorts

"ass" she responds with an amused smirk

"anyway, we need to go into the saloon and meet the Mayor of this place, Jack you can stay out here, I know I'm going in so that leaves you two, Wolfie, Mouse?"

"I think I'll stay out here and keep Jack company, he doesn't have a kindle after all"

"hey! Raven has one too!" Jack protests

"correction, Cara has one, I'm not a fan of reading, I prefer playing video games and Amelia likes training with sharp and deadly things"

"why are we not surprised?" Jack drawls, trying to hide how intimidated he feels by that piece of information

"whatever, Mouse and I will be back soon then we'll visit the shop"

"yes sir! Captain, ma'am, sir!" Jack fumbles making Raven chuckle

"goodbye Jack" she calls, entering the saloon.

 **until next time bitches ;)**


	3. Chapter 3

**A ghost town gunfight, seriously?**

Raven enters the dark saloon once again, following Michelle towards the bar when both of their attentions are pulled towards an argument between a plainly dressed brunette woman and a man wearing some form of police uniform

"I'm done being nice, if you don't hand Ringo over soon, I'm gonna get my friends and we're burning this place to the ground, got it?" the man says in a deep menacing voice

"we'll keep that in mind. Now, if you're not going to buy something, get out" the woman's raspy voice responds, the man retreats unhappily, knocking into both Raven and Michelle as he nears the door

"what are you looking at?" he sneers before exiting.

The two women share a look before moving as one towards the mayor whom had retreated behind the bar

"well you lot have been causing quite a stir, glad I finally got to meet you, welcome to the prospector's saloon, but please leave the big fella outside" the woman that the game indicates as Trudy requests, Raven cracks a smile while Michelle 'hmns'

"can do ma'am, we couldn't help but overhear your argument, what was it about?" Raven asks politely

"well it looks like our little town got itself dragged into the middle of something we don't want anything to do with. About a week ago, this trader, Ringo, comes into town, Survivor of an attack, he says. Bad men after him, needs a place to hide. We figured he was just in shock, so we gave him a place to lie low. We didn't actually expect anyone to come after him" Trudy answers

"where's this Ringo now?" Raven has her 'I am insanely curious' expression on that has Michelle slightly alarmed because nothing good ever comes from a curious Raven

"he's holed up at the abandoned gas station up the hill" Trudy replies a notification appears before them 'Quest started, Ghost Town Gunfight' they must have been too preoccupied to notice the quest notification earlier

"cool, so listen, we're looking for the men who shot us. Know anything about 'em?" Raven smiles

"not much, other than they're a bunch of freeloaders who expected a few rounds on the house. I was able to get them to pay up, though. 'Course one of the Great Khan's did knock my radio on the floor 'by accident' and it hasn't been working since" Trudy sighs, annoyed

"did they say where they were going?" Michelle questions

"they were having some kind of argument about it, but the guy in the checkered coat kept shushing them. Sounded like they came in from the north through Quarry Junction. If that's the case I can't say I blame them for not wanting to go back." Trudy shrugs

"why?" Michelle asks

"that whole area's overrun with the kind of critters that just get mad if you shoot at 'em. Merchants avoid that whole stretch of I-15 like it's radioactive. Which it could be for all I know."

"So where were they headed?" Michelle sighs impatiently

"I didn't hear exactly, but the leader was talking about the strip. Fella wants to get there and avoid the 15, he'd have to go east. Take highway 93 up" Trudy responds

"thank you, Trudy, you've been a huge help. Would you like me to take a look at that broken radio?" Raven beams making the mayor smile in bemusement at such an enthusiastic reply

"sure, that'd be great. There'd be caps in it for you, I do like to hear what's going on in the world. And that Mr. New Vegas seems like such a gentleman." Raven heads over to the Radio while Michelle stays with the older woman and orders herself a drink.

Coming away from the radio Raven smiles as the sound of Mr. New Vegas' voice floods the saloon, her attention is stolen to her skill bar as she levels up to level 2. Michelle watches her companion as she raises her hand and reaches out to touch something in front of her but whatever it is, Michelle can't see it.

Raven takes in her stats, raising her guns +1 to make the skill 30, lockpick from 12 to 15, repair from 22 to 25, science 22 to 25, sneak 29 to 30 and speech 37 to 40 then chooses the swift learner perk, 'cause logic. Returning to the present Raven turns to Michelle and smirks

"guess who just levelled-up? Booyah" Raven sings, doing a dorky little happy dance and a fist pump

"oh, so that's what was going on, you were touching the air like a weirdo" Michelle smirks, making Raven pout

"so, Trudy, your radio is hereby fixed" Raven turns away from Michelle in an attempt to ignore her

"yup, I heard it turn right back on after you got done tinkering with it. Here's some caps for the work" Trudy hands her 50 caps

"that's it? You implying I did a crap job?" Raven argues pockets the caps

"not at all. I'm never quite sure how much in normally charged for this sort of thing. Here's some additional caps – that should be enough" Trudy hands her a further 25 caps

"thank you, ma'am, might I be so bold as to call you beautiful?" Raven smirks charmingly

"well now, that's a new one, don't think I've ever met someone so bold that I didn't fancy punching right away" Trudy chuckles

"I'll take that as a compliment, goodbye ma'am, I recon we'll see each other again soon" Raven winks, walking away with Michelle

"seriously" Michelle hisses at her companion as they leave

"I get bored" Raven shrugs

"be careful out there" Trudy calls just as they reach the door

"Jack, Wolfie, we know where the men went" Raven says as soon as they are near enough to be heard

"and we've been given a quest" Michelle adds

"yeah, we noticed, what's it about?" Jack questions

"there's a man hiding from a gang here in town, but the gang know he's here and are threatening to kill the townspeople, honestly I'm conflicted as to what to do, should we help him or leave?" Michelle asks, worry creasing her brow

"you're conflicted? I was just curious, fuck the stupid bastard, we need to get home" Raven argues

"well I think we should help!" Jack growls

"me too" Michelle agrees in a less hostile manner

"for fuck sakes, please tell me you're on my side love" Raven directs at Wolfie, who squirms in discomfort

"well, I am. But not about this, we should help him" Wolfie implores

"why?" Raven sighs

"because I'm not too keen on rushing through this just to get home, and it's the right thing to do" Wolfie replies

"since when have I ever cared about the right thing to do?" Raven scoffs

"Raven…" Wolfie sighs disappointedly, Raven physically cringes, she hates that tone, it makes her cave almost instantly every time

"we could come back?" Raven suggests instead

"what would be the point?" Michelle argues

"we could split up" Jack shrugs

"and how would that work, I go off to the Strip and leave you here to get killed, yeah no thanks" Raven scoffs

"a vote then" Wolfie decides

" at would be the point? We already know the results, looks like we're staying, I hope we get paid for this" Raven grumbles, trudging over to the shop to sell her loot, Wolfie following with both Jack and Michelle's loot so that the twins may keep each other company. Plus, Wolfie had a higher barter skill so… logic.

After selling their loot, buying a bit of ammo in Ravens case, Stimpacks for the twins and 3 low conditioned leather armour, the group head over to the cemetery, encountering no hostiles as the twins had cleared it out earlier but had no intention of digging up the graves so they were still intact. While Wolfie and Jack set about looting the graves Raven inspected the sights of their burial, her screen flashes as she hovers over a cluster of cigarettes, marking them as distinctive, that must be important, ignoring her squeamishness of all things smoking related, Raven picks up and stores the cigarettes in an empty tin can she picked up from the pile near the cliff's edge.

"find anything?" she calls as she stands, noticing the freshly dug graves and pile of various ammunition

"just a lot of ammo, what should we do with it?" Michelle asks, eyeing the pile

"what kinds?" Raven returns

"um, 9mm, 10mm, 22LR round and 357 magnum rounds" Michelle lists

"hmn, I'd like to keep the 9mm, and the 22, do you guys want to swap?" Raven suggests

"oh, don't worry about it, I don't need them" Wolfie replies

"and you have nothing I want" Jack adds

"we'll just sell the rest and split it three ways" Michelle shrugs

"if you're sure, how about we split up, I'll go to the station and you three go to the school house, try not to use all of the bobby pins" Raven says

"seriously, didn't you tell us earlier that you didn't want us splitting up any less than pairs?" Jack argues

"yup, but unlike that last suggestion we won't be far from each other, plus I know fallout, none of you have ever played these games before, I know what I'm doing, so I'd rather that you three stick together while you're learning and to be blunt, you get in my way a bit, so if I could get five minuets to think and figure things out then that would be appreciated, we'll met outside the saloon like usual, kay?" Raven smiles

"sure" they all shrug, unfazed by the cruel words because that was how Raven was, blunt and a bit mean, but loyal and knew how to take charge of their dysfunctional family.

Without another word the group depart, splitting at the station while the others followed the road towards the old decrepit school house.

Raven heaves a sigh of relief as she has a moment alone, she loved them all, but bloody hell, being a leader was hard, especially to such a headstrong group, why did they have to be so bloody _good_? Ah well, she couldn't complain really, she'd kill someone if they tried to take advantage of the naive, sheltered trio after all, and not just metaphorically.

Deciding to get this shit show over with, Raven enters the gas station

"that's close enough, who are you? And what do you want with me?" a man stops any further progress by aiming a gun at Raven, boy was she pissed, she didn't even want to help this fucker

"is that how you treat everyone trying to help you?" she snarks

"sorry about the gun, you just caught me off guard. We got off to a bad start, how about a game of Caravan to acquaint ourselves, you know how to play?"

"dude I ain't here for a game of cards, Joe Cobbs been asking for you, and my friends and I are partial to Goodsprings so we figured we'd help you out, for a price of course" Raven was lying through her teeth but he didn't need to know that, all he needed to know was that they were guns for hire, nothing more, nothing less

"all I got on me are a handful of caps, but if you can get me out of this and I make it back to the Crimson Caravan then you got my word that it pays well" Ringo says

"it'll have to do; do you have a strategy pretty boy?" Raven questions

"we need more then just us, how many of your group are there?" he returns

"three others, including one scary mother fucker" Raven smirks

"ok, try talking to Sunny Smiles, she's friendlier than most"

"all right, I'll see what I can do" after looting the place and picking open the safe Raven exits the station with a small bit of loot and makes her way to the prospectors saloon, wishing that her friends hadn't decided to help this uninteresting piece of arrogant shit, briefly she wondered how shit could be arrogant as she continued on her way.

 **until next time bitches ;)**


	4. Chapter 4

**It's A Fucked Up World**

Raven waited outside of the tavern drinking from a bottle of whiskey that she had bought from Trudy, she had spoken to Sunny and been told to sweet talk Trudy into helping out, which she had easily done while buying the alcohol, Sunny also told her that Easy Pete had a stockpile of dynamite somewhere near, but Raven had blown that because her explosive knowledge was shit. With that failure she decided to park her ass down, take a few minutes to herself and unwind with a few sips of her favourite alcohol. It was nice, and luckily her friends return before she gets more than slightly buzzed

"what's up my weirdos" Raven grins, watching as her friends walked over

"are you drunk?" Jack questions in surprise

"nah, I've had the equivalent of two shots max, I know my limits, anyway, how'd it go?"

"we got a few magazines, some ammo, Stimpaks, a 10mm pistol and a stealth boy" Michelle answers

"a stealth boy? Nice" Raven grins

"what's a stealth boy?" Wolfie asks

"it's a device that can only be used once, it brings your sneak up +100 and your stealth field +75, it's a handy little thing for delicate missions" Raven replies looking through the loot

"oh, then why was it in a schoolhouse?" Wolfie questions, Raven shrugs

"creators may have wanted to give the explorers a little reward, it happened a lot in fallout 3"

"how did it go with Ringo?" Michelle asks

"he's asked me to round up some more help, Sunny has suggested talking to Easy Pete, Chet and Dc Mitchel, I've already talked to Trudy and she's agreed to help out, Mouse, I need you to talk to Pete, and Wolfie, I need you to talk to Chet, you both have enough to pass their skill checks, I'm gonna go see the Doc about some medical supplies, Jackal, just… don't do anything stupid" Raven instructs

"why am I always left out!" Jack complains

"because you're the idiot who decided to become a Deathclaw and are passive aggressive unless provoked, honestly, I know you've never played Fallout before, but its not a kill everything game, you need to strategize, sneak, and even charm your way through some situations, you being a Deathclaw means you will get benched unless we're fighting and traveling the wasteland. Please do not make me explain this again, because I bet the people watching us will get bored of it soon if it carries on" Jack, now thoroughly chastised just sighs defeatedly

"fine, I'll wait here"

"good, like usual we'll meet up back here when done" Raven orders before jogging over to Doc Mitchel's house.

Raven walks in to find the house seemingly empty but can hear the old man pottering about in the kitchen, there was an old broken 9mm sub machine gun she had spotted earlier but wasn't skilled enough to fix it, now she was. So, without prompting Raven strolls over to the chemistry station and fiddles with the broken gun, smiling smugly when it's fixed, and when she receives XP. Once done, she turns to find the Doctor walking into the room, and proceeds to ask for and receive medical supplies, enough for her, Michelle and Wolfie, seeing as Jack apparently had an endurance level of 8, Raven figured he'd be fine. She decided to take one last look around the property for anything she had missed the first time around, she actually found a handful of bottle caps, some med-X and a pair of reading glasses, which she promptly equipped, seeing as her original perception is 4 but she took the four eyes perk making her perseption even less, she was glad to find a pair of glasses, it was close to her original style, now all she needs is a baseball cap, preferably red, and she'd be set.

Exiting the house, the quest marker changes, telling her to go speak with Ringo apparently, walking over to her friends, Raven finds them lounging around looking bored as hell

"well?" she asks, scaring the crap out of them because none had heard her approach

"we got leather armour from Chet, but none for Jack" Wolfie replies

"same with the dynamite, I got three crates, one for each of us" Michelle adds

"and I got three lots of stimpaks, the townspeople must think it's a waste to help him or something" Raven assumes, slipping into the leather armour and handing out the stimpaks, when Michelle attempted to give her one lot of dynamite she declined, never having liked explosives in the game, Wolfie also declines because she dislikes explosives even more than guns, who would've guessed? So, Michelle is left with three crates full of dynamite

"are we ready for this?" Raven asks, her voice carrying because of the silence that had descended around them, this would be their first fight after all

"yeah, lets get this over with" Wolfie replies

"remember what I told you with the Geckos babe, keep an eye on your health bar and don't go into it rashly, keep a cool head and scope out the field first, and none of you panic if you get shot, that's easy to fix" Raven says

"that seems pretty stupid, don't panic? How about don't get shot in the first place" Jack argues

"good luck with that, you're gonna be a walking target out there, if they don't run away first" Raven scoffs

"they could actually run away?" Wolfie asks

"I… don't know, as a player you would've been insane to take on a Deathclaw so early in the game, but I have no idea about NPC's especially these warped versions that can think for themselves" Raven replies, annoyed at how little she knows, she hates not knowing, it always had a way of biting her in the ass

"what do we do if they try to run away?" Michelle asks

"kill them, if they can run away then they can think for themselves, that means that they could easily come back later to finish off this town after we've left" Raven shrugs

"that's a bit heartless, don't you think?" Wolfie objects

"it's a heartless world, I'm just trying to keep us alive" she shrugs again

"let's just get this shit over with" Jack grumbles.

Raven returned to Ringo and informed him that they were all set to take on the Powder Gangers, Jack had wandered off to look for a good ambush point where they could hide his existence until the Gangers were in sight and unable to flee and both Michelle and Wolfie were near the gas station, waiting for Raven.

Speaking of, she had just finished talking to Ringo when she must have triggered the next sequence in the quest, because Sunny Smiles showed up and simply said "they're here" before disappearing, Raven was starting to get an inkling that what the NPC's were saying was not a part of the original script simply because their responses didn't sound wooden and forced, in fact, some of the responses probably were completely new, suited to their new environment.

Gathering her nerves, Raven follows, being joined by Wolfie and Michelle on her way towards the saloon

"did Jackal find a vantage point?" Raven questions

"well no, but he did find somewhere to keep low until they close in" Michelle replies

"good, remember what we discussed, hard and fast hits, keep an eye on the townspeople and keep an eye on your health. I'm going to stay back and use my newly moded vermin rifle. Good luck guys" Raven nods, a blank mask already in place, preparing for the worst

"good luck Raven" Michelle echoes

"and thanks for all the help" Wolfie adds, Raven looks at her and gives a soft smile

"you're my family, I could never forsake you" Wolfie smiles back happily, feeling ready.

A total of 24 men had shown up, Raven knew instantly that this was different compared to actual gameplay, never would such low-level characters be pitted against 24 enemies, no matter the difficulty. Although if everything was quadrupled in this world because there was four of them it would make sense that there were six each, her eyes scanned the men when her eyes landed on a bright red baseball cap

"I call the baseball hat!" she calls out startling all those gathered, every eye turned towards her, but she already had her rifle pointed at the man, and quickly shot him, right between the eyes. Shouting brakes out, and gunfire erupts, each side desperate to stay alive.

Raven smirks as an explosion kills three men and cripples two, quickly putting them out of their misery she yells

"7"

"GOD DAMN IT! HA 8!" Michelle boasts, happily taking up the challenge, suddenly an ungodly roar echoes throughout the town, Jack emerges, his maw and claws covered in blood and carrying a severed leg

"5" the unhappy beast growls

"fuck yeah, beat 9 bitches!" Raven cheers as another ganger falls due to a well-placed shot

"are you three done? There's no one left to kill" Wolfie chuckles, she didn't like that they had killed people, but the competition that probably happened because all of them were huge nerds was pretty funny.

Both Jack and Michelle grumble at loosing, but were honestly unsurprised, they were still new to this world and though not remembering the game much, Raven was experienced with this world and its ways, they would be patient, who knows maybe they could bring down an elephant… did fallout have elephants?

Ringo walks over to Raven, thanks her, gives her 200 caps (which she splits equally between the others) and fucks off, which she is grateful for because that dude was seriously boring the hell out of her. When finished with the annoying man her attention was pulled towards the level up menu and she quickly filled it out bringing her lockpick up to 25 and raising unarmed, survival, medicine to 15 and raising energy weapons to 13.

Finished with this she looks up to find all three of her friends playing around with an invisible screen, deciding to leave them in peace she loots the dead and claims the red cap for herself, leaving the rest of the loot in a pile, waiting for the others so they can argue about who gets what, but she would be keeping the fucking hat.

Raven was pleasantly surprised to find that none of them had been grievously injured, nothing a few bits of food and some water wouldn't cure, especially since all of them either had minor dehydration or were already suffering from it.

Splitting the loot Raven grinned as Wolfie looked over her new, fully repaired baseball bat, she herself was able to fully repair her rifle, Michelle was able to replace all the dynamite that was used and even add to her collection, and Jack decided he wanted to wear a desperado cowboy hat, for whatever reason, maybe because he didn't keep any weapon for himself, they ended up selling everything else except food, water and meds and splitting the profits equally.

Lounging in the now abandoned gas station, which was cleared of trash and debris and furnished with 3 extra matrices, Raven watched the candle flame flicker

"it must seem really boring that we spent 4 whole chapters in Goodsprings" she spoke

"chapters?" Jack chuckles

"well yeah, I mean Maxi is watching us and yet, not always, haven't you noticed that sometimes things are brighter, as if someone is writing colour into the world?" Raven asks

"…have you been drinking? You sound like you've been drinking" Jack snickers

"no, you asshole, well yes, but I'm not that drunk!" Raven protests

"how about you just sleep this off Raven, if you're still adamant about this in the morning then we'll take you seriously" Michelle offers

"fine, hey, fallout have really good whiskey, fucking strong stuff, I love it" Raven hiccups

"get some rest Raven, we'll speak in the morning" Wolfie says

"m'kay" Raven mumbles, snuggling into Wolfie's side subconsciously in her sleep.

 **until next time bitches ;)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Oh, feelings... Yay?**

The next day was a little more active, Raven had stepped on a land mine while inspecting a Powder Ganger outpost and given herself limb damage, luckily, she had warned the others to stay back while she inspected the sight, but it scared the others half to death when the explosion happened. When they reached Prim, it was only to be warned about it being a 'funeral incarnate' by some NCR lackey, and they ended up sneaking into the Vikki and Vance casino to get some answers while also taking out a few Gangers on the way.

A commotion took place when the refugees caught sight of the demon that was Deathclaw Jack, I mean, you'd be out of your fucking mind to not be scared by him, Raven was honestly torn between amusement and frustration. Amusement because Jack had forgotten for a second that he was a giant lizard and didn't understand why people were losing their shit, and frustration because she had been having a really fucking bad day, beginning with a hangover, fucking game messed with her alcohol tolerance, not cool.

Wolfie was worried that something bad was going to happen, which Raven had picked up on, she could read the other woman quite well if she were honest. And Michelle was torn between worry and annoyance, worry because her brother might be in actual danger and annoyance because her brother was fucking things up, again.

"ALRIGHT, EVERYONE SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Raven screams, louder than all the other panicked voices so it was easy to hear, eyes turn to find her rubbing her throat, because being that loud fucking hurt.

"the Deathclaw is with us, and we're here to find out about a postal invoice" she added, in a calmer tone, a haggard old man stepped forward, the game indicated his name was Johnson Nash

"I recon you'd be looking for me then" he replied

"and you are?" Raven drawled, deeply skeptical, or maybe it was the pain in her leg, she did tend to act weird when in pain

"Johnson Nash is my name, I work for the Mojave express" he explained

"what can you tell us about this?" Raven asked, oddly enough the others decided to let Raven take charge of this, maybe they didn't want to make her more irritable that she already was

"oh, this job, it had strange written all over it, but the pay was good, and we couldn't turn it down" he answered

"what was strange about it?" Raven prodded, suddenly curious as hell

"a cowboy robot had us hire 6 couriers, each was carrying something different, four never turned up, that chip among them" he nods to the paper she is holding

"someone stole it, heard anything?" Raven continues

"well, yeah, a scavenger was out there when a guy in a daisy suit and 2 Kahn's walked through, talking about the chip" he replies

"which way were they headed?" Raven demands

"sorry friend, but you'd have to talk to Deputy Beagle about that, he's been captured by those Gangsters but I'm sure you lot can handle them" he shrugs, Raven nods

"thanks for the help" she says turning back to the door

"just don't go making things more difficult" he advises walking away

"creepy fucker" Raven mutters as she exits the depressing building.

Speaking of depressing buildings, the Bison Steve Hotel was drab as hell, taking out the men proved easy enough, even with a busted leg, Raven was able to help a little bit, it did annoy the hell out of her how little she could help though, and the pain was almost as bad as the time she broke her arm, well, times.

Jack and Michelle racked up most of the body count, while Raven picked off stragglers and Wolfie hovered near Raven, uncomfortable with leaving her alone in such a condition. And honestly Raven melted a little when Wolfie did that, and unlike with anyone else, she actually blushed when Wolfie expressed some concern, of course she'd deny ever doing so in the future. But she gave her friend a comforting smile and told her that if she needed help then she'd ask for it, knowing that was the only way to ease Wolfies worries.

"Deputy Beagle?" Raven assumed, seeing the man tied up in the kitchen

"that's me, can you help me out of this?" he asks, holding up his hands

"I hear you know some things about a guy in a checked suit travelling with to Kahn's. correct?" she asks instead

"I am aware of some of his dealing, but if you would please assist me with my predicament, I would be happy to assist you in turn" he answers

"I could always leave you here, I'm sure someone will show up eventually" she shrugs, leaning against the counter to take some pressure off of her leg

"Raven…" Wolfie pipes up, unhappy with her response, Raven looks over with a confused look

"what?"

"we're not leaving him here" Wolfie replies, disappointed

"it's called leverage love" Raven says with a bemused smile

"what about trust? He said he would tell us after we let him go"

"I'm not one to trust easily" Raven shrugs

"you trust us" Wolfie objects

"of course I do, you're my family… ugh, I mean… um" Raven stutters, blushing slightly and completely lost as of how to continue

"they're going to Novac, I recommend going through Nipton, now can you let me out of this?" the deputy interrupts, annoyed at their squabbling and just wanting to get home. Raven gets a notification that she had leveled up and quickly became distracted, so Michelle undid the deputies ropes and he quickly left.

"how about we just keep going and find somewhere to catch some sleep?" Raven suggests once finished with leveling up, suddenly feeling extremely exhausted

"we need to find you a doctor Raven" Wolfie argues

"the closest is Doc Mitchell and I really can't be assed going back to Goodsprings after we just left" Raven replies

"well you're slowing us down Raven, and that's not smart" Michelle tries to appeal to her sense of logic, making Raven fall silent

"there's an NCR outpost further south, it's probably closer than Goodsprings and if we reach there then I promise I'll stay off the leg for a couple of days, you guys may even be able to do some odd jobs for caps while I'm out of action" Raven sighs in defeat

"I thought you said you couldn't remember this game?" Jack questions as he hoists her onto his back, noting that she was having a lot more trouble with the leg after the Gangers had shot it earlier, how they were able to tell that she was injured no one knew, but they sure had a knack for making things worse

"heh, you'll understand when we get closer" she replied with a chuckle.

The group of friends continued to chat contentedly until they came across a small gunfight between some Gangers and a group labelled Jackal gang members near a police station, Jack set Raven down a good distance away, Wolfie stayed with her while both Jack and Michelle took care of the groups and stripped them of anything useful or valuable. Raven was still annoyed at her own lack of participation, but she was able to pick off a couple enemies with her rifle, which helped lessen the blow to her ego.

Jack lumbered back and Wolfie helped settle Raven onto his back once more, dark was approaching, and Michelle had wandered inside the station to loot it of anything valuable

"should we make camp here?" Wolfie asked, watching the sky darken

"can you see that point over there?" Raven said instead, pointing into the distance, both Wolfie and Jack replied affirmatively

"that's the outpost, and I honestly think it would be safer to keep going than to spend a night here where any number of enemies could decide to investigate" Raven added, watching Michelle return

"we could take them" Jack scoffs

"sure, but what about sleep? It's hard to drift off when you're worried about an attack" Raven shrugs, which was weird when getting a piggy back ride from a giant lizard

"so, there were two other gang members in there, but I took care of them, should we get moving?" Michelle asks once she reached the trio

"yeah, lets get going" Jack answers, walking towards the outpost, guided but the woman on his back.

"I can see why you remembered it" Michelle acknowledges as they pass under the giant sculpture of two people

"it was pretty hard to forget, if I remember correctly there's a hostel type thing and bar around here somewhere" Raven replies. Honestly, she was highly amused that it had taken until then for all hell to break loose because someone spotted Jack, she would've thought that they'd been spotted ages ago, but maybe the dark helped cover them

"DEATHCLAW!"

"oh Jesus" Wolfie mutters as multiple guns are pointed at them

"he's with us, he's um… tame!" Raven calls in a clear voice

"are you out of your god damned minds?!" a stern voice demands, a man noted as Sgt Kilborn. (Side-note that was a pretty cool name)

"probably" Michelle answers, making Raven and Jack snicker

"but seriously, we're the ones with the Deathclaw, how about you stop pointing those pretty useless weapons at him and we won't let him attack you, he's already agitated" Raven smirks, confidant that they'll agree, and they do, but only out of fear. The quartet breath a sigh of relief at that and they head over to the bar.

"ooh, ooh. I recognize her!" Raven says excitedly as they enter, at the bar is a woman with sort flaming red hair, a straw-like cowboy hat and a shotgun strapped to her back

"who is she?" Wolfie asks

"Cass, eventually she can become your companion… if the companion system still works that is" Raven replied, suddenly contemplative. Interestingly enough no one had much of a reaction to Jack other than surprise, Raven had honestly not expected that, and it made her curious as to how the rules of this game worked

"I'm gonna set you down on the stool and go look for a bed, I'm tired" Jack says, while doing just that

"night dude!" Raven calls while both Michelle and Wolfie give tamer responses.

A woman named Lacey came over to them as they talked quietly among themselves

"can I get you anything?" she asks

"you don't have a doctors bag by chance do you?" Raven replies in a pained but hopeful voice

"as a matter of fact, I do, it's 80 caps, and takes a couple days to work" Lacey answers

"done, thanks" Raven smiles, handing over the caps and getting to work healing her fucked up leg

"what about you two?" Lacey asks

"do you have any purified water?" Michelle asks

"and food?" Wolfie adds

"well I got the water, 4 bottles for 110 caps" she replies, both Michelle and Wolfie share a look

"sure" they both answer, counting out half each.

Raven ended up staying awake far longer than her friends, sitting up in a bottom bunk she had claimed, she watched over her sleeping friends and analysed the days events, continually kicking herself for stuttering in Bison Steve's casino, she hated how much she over-analysed things while trying to sleep, it was something that drove her crazy.

She couldn't understand why she couldn't have said something funny, or smart, or flirty. She ended up stuttering and blushing like a schoolgirl with a crush… oh… that sure did explain a lot, what the hell was she supposed to do about a crush while literally in the middle of an apocalypse? Fuck her life, she doubted Wolfie felt the same way. Fuck it, she'd just act normally and not bring this up, it's not like she needed to bring it up. It would only make things more complicated anyway… Right?

Rolling over, Raven sighed and attempted to fall into a blissful sleep, attempted being a key word.

 **until next time bitches ;)**

 **(A.N. I took the time to look trough the chapter and edited any mistakes that i found, if any glaringly obvious mistakes are noticed plese notify me and i will be happy to correct them)**


	6. Chapter 6

**A.N, Hey bitches, I'm back, I'll be honest, its been a hard few months of drama and writers block, but I finally hit some insomnia and alcohol inspiration, warning, the chapter is short in comparison to some others Ive written but I guess its better than nothing right? hope you enjoy.  
Also check out my friend Steelredwolf, they have some cool stories and are keen to take up the question questers mantel.**

 **A.N. 2: fixed some errors, though drinking helps with inspiration when writing the continuity and grammar can be shit, so... yeah.  
**

 **Self deprecation, oh.  
**

The next day saw Raven drinking at the bar before any of her friends woke, she did not enjoy self-reflection and though she loathed to admit it, she could only quiet her mind through two things, drinking and sleeping. And it seemed sleep was in short supply without its counterpart, drink.

And so it was here as she attempted to drink herself into oblivion without any of her companions noticing as they were still blissfully unaware in their sleeping minds that she began flirting with Cass, resident badass and hottie {if she may be so bold} and seeming to earn the woman's amusement first, attention second and favour third.

All the while she plotted through her own situation, she was injured, she was slowing their progress... she was being self-pitiful, ugh.

She hated self-pity, she would need to fuck that shit off as soon as possible... except, her self-pity fuelled her self-loading and her self-loathing fuelled her mind in alternative thinking and she needed that shit, because the twins Mouse and Jackal seemed to enjoy their little escapade outside of the world and even Wolfie seemed to enjoy this life in comparison to the real world... if this was in fact an alternative world and not simply a hallucination brought on by drugs or hallucinogenic.

But she was the eldest, she was the _adult_ , she was the one person who had real responsibilities outside of this... whatever it was. and she was abso-fucking-lutely lost as to how she should proceed, because on one hand Maxi was right, she appreciated the fact they were inside of a video game, she liked not having to worry about responsibilities, _divorce_ and things of a similar nature. But shit man she was driving herself crazy in this game.

"Raven?" she practically sighed in relief as the voice of her best friend called out to her, turning to see Wolfie walking towards her with a slightly concerned gaze, Raven was not ashamed of the fact she nearly swooned at the look {newly discovered feelings tended to do that to a person}

"hey babe" she smiles, raising the drink to her lips as she gazes at her best friend

"... are you drunk?" Wolfie seemed to ask as she settled next to her fellow blond

"er, yes?" Raven replied, gulping the alcohol quickly in her surprise

"that's not a good idea Raven" Wolfie said disapprovingly

"its fine love, its not like I'll get addicted inside a game for gods sake" Raven gives her signature smirk which made Wolfie huff in annoyance but drop the subject

"are the boys up? I want to talk to Jackal" Raven says as she gazes around the room

"Jack is awake, but he said he wanted some time to himself" Wolfie replies

"alright" Raven mutters as she adjusts her crutch and moves towards the bunkhouse

"um, Raven?" Wolfie asks

"like I said babe, I want to talk to him" Raven replies smoothly without turning back.

After disturbing Jackal and annoying him penceless to the point he decided to take a walk to alleviate his frustration the four met outside, around a carefully built campfire and away from prying eyes or ears, unless you count dear Maxi of course.

"alright, so here's the deal... you three need to go on without me" Raven says and as she expected her friends erupted into protest

"I don't want to hear it!" Raven says forcefully making her friends fall silent

"I need to get out of here, and in order for that to happen _we_ need to continue through the game, I can't. My leg is busted for another day at least, so I'll fucking beg if I have to, but i need you guys to go on without me"

"we cant just leave you" Michelle says with a light frown

"yes, you can. because that's what I'm asking you to do" she replies firmly much to their obvious displeasure

"Raven, you cant seriously expect us to happily go along with this" Wolfie, ever the voice of reason, points out

"not happily, no. But I expect you to do so all the same" she replies, somewhat grumpily

"no, there's no way in hell that we're leaving you here alone!" Jack argues with a growl

"why not?" she growls back with a glare that set shivers down Jacks spine

"because we need you Raven, and you need us. were a team" Michelle argues softly, trying to save her brother from a world of pain

"I don't need anyone. And we are not a team. either you three leave without me or I leave without you... you decide" Raven replies in a quiet voice as she hobbles away with her crutch.

And Raven got her wish, the next couple of hours were filled with the others preparing to leave and complaining the whole time before Jackal, Mouse and Wolfie made their way away from the NCR outpost and towards a shady little town called Nipton.

 **until next time bitches ;)**


	7. Chapter 7

**A.N be cautious of the filler chapters, they annoy me greatly and are difficult to write, but they must be posted, so enjoy, I guess?  
please review because I appreciate any constructive criticism available**

 **I hurt myself today**

The next few days passed in a blur of alcohol, after the others left Raven got so pissed she passed out, she woke the next morning with one of the worst hangovers she ever had… and then started drinking all over again, she lost track of days and usually woke up wherever the hell she'd passed out that day/night/morning… alright that shit was getting a bit old.

She was spiralling, she knew this, hell her leg was fine now and yet she was laying on her ass, drinking. She couldn't stop, didn't want to stop, stopping meant going after her friends, stopping meant either bottling all this shit up and getting on with it or dealing with it in a healthy manor.

If her mother could see her now… she'd probably get drunk with her before dragging her into consciousness the next day, heh. The thought made her want to laugh and cry at the same time, she missed her mum, who was dealing with her issues like the goddess Raven knew her to be last time she saw her, hell… she missed her idiot dad too, the weirdo to his mini weirdo.

FUCK THIS! She was done moping! Her parents would kick her ass if they saw her like this, and then smoke a joint together and laugh… ugh, this was why when she drank, it was usually with other people.

Standing on unsteady feet Raven grabbed her shit and moved towards the door, no one batted an eye, even if they were semi-intelligent they were still NPC's. She made her way out of the camp and quickly followed the road her friends were following, hopefully she could reach them before they got to Freeside.

The ominous black smoke she remembered from Nipton wasn't there as she walked towards the town, it was disconcerting, especially with the knowledge that her friends had passed through here, after killing a couple intent on making their problems her own and picking up a couple of unique star bottle caps she made her way into town.

The first thing she noticed were the crucifix' and the dead bodies that were strapped to them, the secon was the lack of hostile enemies, her memory of New Vegas was faulty at best but she distinctly remembered the platoon of legion soldiers exiting the town hall, didn't she? Killing some mongrels and looting the place Raven made a near fatal mistake… she step[ed on another fucking mine.

She couldn't move, her legs were crippled instantly and there was no way she could call for help, not with a low tech pib-boy on her wrist and no way to move, especially since she sold her crutch back at the fucking outpost, fuck, fucking, fuckity, fuck. She was fucking doomed.

And then a light shone through the room she was stuck in, and Raven tried to scope the culprit out but wound up hurting herself so much she yelled in pain, much to her very quick annoyance as the persone responsible took notice

"come out!" a decidedly feminine voice that Raven didn't recognize called out

"I, er… I can't" Raven calls back after a moment of silence, the woman follows the voice to find Raven sitting on her ass, one leg broken and the other from missing the shin down and physically winces in silent sympathy

"holly cow, what happened to you?" the stranger asks

"I stepped on a mine, what does it look like?" Raven growls testily, though to be fair she was in tremendous pain, thanks to the cauterized stump where her _leg_ used to be.

"um… I have a doctors bag, but I doubt it regrows limbs" the woman says with a frown

"the pain is unbearable, I'll give anything to be rid of it" Raven replies as she moves slowly to beg on her still intact knee.

The woman looks hesitant, a light brown cloth robe and a power fist, her notable possession making Raven frown slightly until the woman in question produced a doctors bag from seemingly thin air making Raven a lot more interested, especially after she offered the bag to rave with a smile.

Raven accepted the gift with grateful grin, because of course she did, with a leg missing and the other crippled, raven needed all the help she could fucking get.

So after healing her crippled leg, Raven turns to the mysterious woman

"you know these don't work for a few days right?" she asked to witch the female mystery nodded

"I guess I'll just have to keep you out of trouble myself. Ms..?" the woman trailed off after chuckling slightly

"Pritchard, Raven. And you?" Raven replies

"Veronica" the woman smiles

"...okay, what are you doing here, Veronica?" Raven asks with narrowed eyes, already suspicious, given her ancient knowledge of fallout N.V

"me? I was just scav'ing for my family" Veronica replies making Raven hum in acceptance

"so what are you doing out here, Raven?" Veronica returns

"… I'm searching for my friends" Raven says after a moment of hesitation

"ooh, interesting. Where have they gone?" Veronica grins making Raven scowl

"if I knew that I wouldn't be searching for them, now would I?" she growls

"alright, calm down crazy lady. Where were they headed last?" Veronica asks

"NoVac"

"erm… then why are you here?" Veronica frowns

"because I stepped on a mine as I was looting the fucking place, what do you think happened?!" Raven sneers as she slowly regains feeling in her remaining leg

"uh, fair point… speaking of which. You should probably sleep on that, you'll heal faster" Veronica suggests

"hmn, I guess that's true, though I cant exactly move much"

"I could help you get to a bed?" Raven focuses on her with a slight smirk

"are you going to join me in that bed?" she asks and happily notes Veronica's blushing

"heh, no, just rest is um best. Promise?" Veronica grins enthusiastically though it doesn't quite reach her eyes

"if you say so, pretty lady" Raven replies as she allows the woman to help her up and over to a blood-stained free mattress.

As Veronica left Raven to her thoughts she couldn't help but wonder why such an interesting woman had showed up to save her ass, it was… vexing, Not having all the answers to the multitude of questions that her mind had conjured up. But she'd let those thoughts wander and fizzle out so that true progress could be made. Ugh fuck it, she was tired, in pain and out of fucking whiskey, she may as well take a nap.

 **until next time bitches ;)**


	8. Chapter 8

**A.N this chapter has the potential to offend readers**

 **Aftermath**

The next afternoon found both women holed up inside of a small home on the edges of Nipton due to a radioactive sand storm that had blown in from the desert  
They had both stated the previous afternoon that the big, empty, bloodstained hall creeped them the fuck out after Raven had woken from her nap so with the help of Veronica they hobbled towards the first home that seemed safe and found it to be mostly bare except for two single beds, hotplate and a fridge filled with alcohol, much to Ravens delight.

Raven watched Veronica as the other woman worked on her power fist while Raven cooked a modest meal of Gecko Stake and insta-mash (a few gecko's got within her path as she made her way towards Nipton, they wouldn't be able to make that mistake again.)  
She wondered why this woman seemed so… familiar, she was adorable in the way only small town, sheltered people could be, her enthusiasm for everything outweighed most of the negativity the Mojave could hold.

Veronica reminded her of Wolfie, now granted Wolfie tended to be shy and unsure about most things in life, but she was always curious about new things, always listened attentively to anything you wanted to chat to her about and could be very passionate when it came to something she was knowledgable of and had a vested interest in…

What was she talking about again? Oh yeah!

Despite all of the commonalities she found between Veronica and Wolfie, Veronica seemed familiar for a very different reason, but she couldn't pin-point why that was, and it was maddening

"so Veronica, you said you were scavenging for your family right?" Raven comments, deciding to try digging for information

"yup!"

"don't they miss you?" Raven asks curiously

"well, I mean… No? My family is pretty big. And I think they'd rather I was out here" Veronica sighs

"oh?" Raven utters with a tilt of her head and slight frown

"heh, don't worry about it" Veronica waves with a smile but Raven continues to watch her varying expressions curiously

"so, uh… out of curiosity I ran in to a few soldiers in the Mojave, called themselves the brotherhood of steel, know anything about them?" Veronica asks, Raven presuming its a way to cease her questions takes a moment to consider the question.

Yes she knew of the brotherhood of steel (thank you Fallout 4) she knew they hoarded tech as a means of controlling the world and keeping immediate threats to a minimum, valuing that goal above all else, even human life. It seemed almost… wasteful.

Now granted, she cared little for other humans, sometimes gleefully eliminating the threats she perceived around her with brutal force or scathing sarcastic remarks that damaged a person emotionally, but to deny the world a chance at recovery due to a false sense of superiority? Ambition? Fear? Not cool dudes.

"I know of them, I can't say I agree with their philosophy though" Raven responds, startling Veronica with the seriousness in which she had considers, and then answered, her query

"yeah! I mean what's with them hoarding up all useful technology they can find?" Veronica is quick to agree making Raven eye her suspiciously

"you're well informed about them for a person who presumably met them recently while travelling the Mojave" she comments making Veronica wince

"oh balls, I gave myself away huh?" she sighs with a light pout making Raven huff an amused laugh

"kinda, yeah… so who are you Veronica?" Raven replies

"I'm a scribe for the brotherhood, I wanted to know how you felt about them before coming clean. Believe it or not, the brotherhood has a lot of enemies here" the scribe answers making Raven nod in agreement

"yeah, I believe that" Raven says as she hands over a plate of food making veronica grin happily at her and tuck in to the offering.

"how's your leg today, Red?" Veronica asks from the doorway of the kitchen where Rave sat drinking a bottle of whiskey and preparing their meal, a few weeks later. Veronica had started calling Raven, Red due to the cap she looted of that body in Goodsprings and never took off, huh, Goodsprings seems like a lifetime ago

"the one I have left is fine, all healed up. Just cant keep my balance long enough to move around much" Raven comments, only slightly self-pittyful

"well maybe this might help!" Veronica grins as she retrieves something mettle from the 'pocket dimension'

"and that is..?" Raven drawls as she pushes herself away from the table and carefully hops over

"its a prosthetic leg! I know it must be hard trying to get used to this and the crutches I found you aren't something you're ecstatic about… so I went to the brotherhood, they wouldn't let me take a cybernetic implant but the Elder and head doctor agreed to give me this instead!" Veronica states with a cheerful smile

Raven gaped at her in open shock, why the hell would someone do something so… selfless? And for her of all people!

"why?" Raven asks, clearly perplexed

"because I care" Veronica says, confused herself

"yes, but why? You barely know me!" Raven objects with a frown, making Veronica back up slightly, seeming disappointed

"we've spent weeks together Red, I may not know you well but I know enough to want to know more! You're my first real friend" Veronica replies sadly making Raven wince, they'd stayed in this crappy town so Raven could heal and practice 'walking'. Veronica had stayed despite the repeated times Raven had flat out yelled at her to leave, she went out each day to scavenge while Raven hopped around town with a wheel barrow and gathered shit to make her temporary living arrangements more comfortable

"why do you stay?" Raven finally asked the question that had been bouncing around her mind for the last few weeks, it was driving her crazy, why anyone would choose her, even in a non-romantic fashion, baffled her

"because your cool Red, and you care. Even if you pretend not to. So… will you try it on?" Veronica asks with a slightly excited grin, Raven held back her questions and just nodded silently making Veronica squeal happily and hand over the prosthetic.

Raven examined the piece of cool mettle between her hands and felt a sense of dis-attachment as she moved over to ease herself into the chair and untied the knot at the base of her knee before rolling the fabric up above her leg. She looked over the prosthetic with slight worry as she didn't know how the fuck these things worked

"here" Veronica says as she hands her a soft fabric socket with a few straps that fit into a cup and had a bolt that seemed to attach to the prosthetic, Raven gives a grateful smile and attaches the socket to her 'stump' god she hated that word! Maybe she could think of something less offensive? Affected limb? No… she'd think of something.

She wiggled her knee a bit to see if the socket would hold and when it did set about attaching the prosthetic to the socket, all the while Veronica kept an eye on her as she went to continue making diner.

Finally Raven stretched her knee a bit, getting used to the weight of the artificial limb and was startled to feel 'phantom pain' from her missing foot, this was going to be a long road… fucking fallout.

 **until next time bitches**


	9. Chapter 9

**Welcome to the desert**

' _I don't need anyone, and we're not a team'  
_ "...ack? Jack? JACK!?" Jack startles out of his memories and looks over to find Michelle before him with an irritated expression while Paulette looks on from the background with a worried expressions  
"what's up?" Jack asks, surprised lilt in his voice as he gazes at his sister  
"you've been out of it for at least half an hour, where were you?" Michelle demands, though Jack can detect slight concern within her voice, and Jack pauses slightly to consider the harm being truthful would do  
"...nowhere" Jack decides on with a shake of his head  
"liar" Michelle says with narrowed eyes  
"just leave it Michael, I mean Michelle" Jack corrects himself quickly with a frustrated growl, getting used to this 'sex change' was harder than he expected  
"no Jack! You've been distant since we left the NCR outpost, what the hell is going on!" Michelle yells in frustration as Paulette observes their argument with wide eyes, Cara was always the one to stop these arguments after all, always the one to interfere  
"you want to know what's wrong?! She doesn't need us! She doesn't trust us! She said we weren't a team!" Jack replies furiously  
"who the hell are you talking about?" Michelle demands sharply, honestly confused  
"Cara, he's talking about Cara" Paulette replies softly making the siblings fall silent  
"she's right, isn't she, Jack?" Michelle asks when Jack refuses to reply  
"...yes" he admits with a frown  
"why does that matter, she said she'd follow us" Michelle argues  
"its been 6 months Michelle! Face it! She's not coming" Jack replies furiously with a growl"she will, Cara doesn't lie, maybe she just got hung up at NoVac, she may not have a high enough barter skill to skip past that quest like we did?" Paulette suggests making Jack calm slightly  
"even so, its been too long and we're stuck here in the Lucky 38 waiting for her to join us and its driving me crazy, can't we go do a quest or something?" Jack asks as he stands stiffly within the presidential suite  
"what if Cara shows up and worries because we're not here?" Paulette frowns  
"one of you two can stay here" Jack grins, his two friends had finally become used to his new form and no longer flinched when he showed his teeth in any manor  
"who? And what quest could we do that doesn't move the main story forward?" Michelle asks  
"we could go back to NoVac and help out there?" Jack suggests  
"and see if we can find Cara along the way?" Paulette questions  
"well, yeah" Jack agrees with a slight shrug  
"alright, I want to go with you" Michelle says with a determined nod making Jack look between the two women  
"what about you Paulette?"  
"I think I'd prefer to wait for Cara here" she agrees with Michelle  
"then you and I are going to NoVac, Jack" Michelle grins  
"alright, when should we leave?" Jack asks, excited  
"you should eat before you go" Paulette advises  
"eat what? A tin of cram? It's frustrating that Cara's the only one who can cook out of the three of us" Michelle frowns making the other two nod in agreement  
"stop at the grub and gulp then, you can stock up on purified water that way" Paulette replies  
"touché" Jack replies with a throaty chuckle.

Michelle and Jack began on their journey, Jack and Michelle argued with each other about the other joining them out of Paulette's earshot, presumably wanting the glory for themselves this author suspects however neither would relent to the other and so as they had agreed earlier, both began their journey towards NoVac.

Nothing remotely interesting happened on their way unless you count killing a colony of fire ants, becoming infamous with Ceasers legion, chatting with an interesting fellow with a guitar and Michelle nearly killing herself on accident when she went to investigate an abandoned farmstead and intead nearly copped a shotgun shell to the f*ing head

Either way they made it to NoVac within one piece and after talking to the receptionist found that Raven had not passed that way which worried them.  
"do you think we should go back to the outpost?" Michelle asks as she watches the road, they'd found that Ravens worry was understandable when she found out all of them had picked Meele at the start of the game, only Jack, being a Deathclaw and having hardened skin really benefited from meele, Michelle and Palette both struggled to kill their opponents as they were being shot at without having a distraction handy.  
"I'd rather that" Jack nods in agreement as he watches his sister enter (and then exit) high alert mode  
"hmn, we should probably get going then, if memory serves well then the outpost is at least a day away" Michelle says, turning towards her brother  
"what if they attack me again?" Jack asks with a gargantuan frown upon his features  
"so what if they do? We're more accomplished now Jack, we're the most dangerous beings in the Mojave. Why do you worry so much?" Michelle chuckles, making Jack frowned more  
"I guess you're right, I'm just… worrying about nothing, I guess" Jack replied with a shake of his hed making Michelle nod in understanding  
"you're worried about her, huh?" She asks  
"well, yeah?" Jack replies, slightly confused  
"its it because you love her?" Michelle asks making Jack freeze  
"what are you talking about?" he sneers making Michelle take a step back to keep him calm  
"you love her jack, I don't know how long but its been growing since before you asked her out" Michelle replies  
"I cancelled our date for a reason Mike, stop bringing it up!" Jack growls, forgetting for a second that Michael had chosen a female body  
"I'm just trying to understand!" Michelle argues with a scowl  
"well stop trying! Nothing is going to happen! She's a Lesbian, and she's made that very clear!" Jack growls as he turns and storms back towards NoVac  
"Jack! Where are you going! Michelle calls but to no reply as Jack enters their rented room and slams the door.

 **until next time bitches**


	10. Chapter 10

**let it go**

FINALLY! Fina-fucking- ly! Raven was ecstatic, she was finally able to travel on the god forsaken prosthetic leg she needed to be able to walk right, or at all when it came to long distances.

Veronica wanted her to go to the brotherhood, and although it was compelling due to her crap ass leg replacement, it wasn't nearly as compelling as the call towards new Vegas, where she hoped Wolfie would be, yes she had been avoiding confronting her growing feelings for her best friend, afraid it would send the woman away, but at this point, having come so close to death and survived… she wanted to at least talk to her, explain her odd behaviour. Because yes it was odd, and yes Wolfie should have noticed, knowing her best… oh god she was overthinking this, right? Her hands were already shaking, either from nerves or from the lack of alcohol… shit, was she becoming an alcoholic?!

Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, her mother was going to fucking kill her… wait, she stopped her panicking and though, her mother would be an absolute bitch for about a minute, and then she'd force her to get sober, heh, her amazing and beautiful mother, fuck she missed her

"Raven? you've um, been staring at the wall for the last ten minutes" Raven snapped towards the voice with her gun drawn, VATS activated only to sigh in relief as she was greeted with Veronica's alarmed expression

"sorry V, I was lost in thought" Raven explains as she holsters her gun, exiting VATS in the process

"um, i-its cool, you're a real scary person when you want to be Red" Veronica says with a slight huff

"… i don't mean to be" Raven admits with a light frown "do… do I scare you often?" Raven asks hesitantly, the thought that she frightened someone so important to her was enough to make her heart race in anxiety.

She cared for Veronica, she knew that if she let herself she may even find herself loving the woman, and then the guilt would settle in, because she loved Wolfie, and it felt like a betrayal to her even though Wolfie had no idea about her feelings, it was fucking frustrating, the way her brain wouldn't let her forget about Wolfie for even a moment of satisfaction, of any kind! She couldn't even flirt any more without feeling guilty. She needed to...

"no, I mean, you can be. But you're really nice to me" Veronica answers, once again braking Raven of her musings, this time however she managed to still her hand before she reacted violently.

"I'm glad, you've been… amazing to me. And I was worried I hadn't shown you nearly how grateful I am for everything you've done to help me… you're an amazing person V, and im so sorry for the way I've treated you while I was recovering" Raven announces, suddenly feeling a gigantic bout of guilt, she knew she had treated Veronica horribly during the last few months, despite her being the only person she was able to rely on. Raven was a self saboteur, plain as simple, of she tried to keep the people she cared about close, but usually ended up pushing them away.

When her mother and father first separated (the fact that they kept too-ing and fro-ing was neither here nor there) Raven went to live with her father, in his parents, her grandparents house. She figured at the time, knowing very little about the situation, that her father needed the support more than her mother, because I was discovered (upon his birthday) that her mother was carrying on another relationship. So she stayed with her father, feeling betrayed by her mother. Because although she was cheating on her father she never actually cared about that. Suddenly the late nights and less time they had to spend together suddenly made sense. She prioritized this man over their relationship, hers with her mother. She never could expand the energy to care about her parents relationships, any of them, including eachother, when the one she cared most deeply for was in tatters due to her mother.

That's what she thought, but the fact she missed her mother… more than anyone outside of this world, made her re-evaluate everything about her feeling regarding her mother and she came from her self reflection feeling worse than she had entered it

"i need whi… no, gimme some bourbon" Raven requests, making Veronica raise an eyebrow in surprise, but comply by sending a bottle of bourbon, two glasses and a bottle of sunset sarsaparilla towards her.

Raven gave her a grateful smile

"why Bourbon? You usually drink whiskey" Veronica asks, making Raven blink in surprise

"you noticed that?" she asks as she fixes herself a drink

"well, yeah. It's kinda hard not to notice when I've spent months with you, and half of that time drinking with you" Raven burrows her brow in confusion, but yes, she remembered spending hours, upon hours with the woman… wait…

"i kissed you!" Victoria gives Raven a surprised look

"i didn't think you remembered that" Victoria mutters as she observes Raven apprehensively. Raven takes a large gulp of her drink before turning towards the Squire

"well, I do… how did you react?" Raven asks, finally allowing herself to sate er curiosity.

The bright tinge on Veronica's cheeks please Raven immensely, though she can't articulate why.

But as the two women move closer towards each other, their bodies instinctively searching for the other, Raven forgets all of her doubts, nearly every one. At least every one keeping her from kissing the beautiful woman before her. Because yes, Veronica was beautiful and their lips melded together seamlessly, the humming and moaning alone sounding from both partners warning people away, traps doing the other half of the work.

Then there was the fact that Raven couldn't get enough of kissing Veronica, she loved trailing her kisses towards the other woman's neck, and showing her Ravens appreciation for all the help she was currently being given. As Raven showed her appreciation physically, she knew instinctively that she would leave the beautiful woman wanting, being bound to her friends, closer to family than she has ever felt with people her own age, Raven worried that she would have to leave the wonderful woman behind in her quest to find her beloved friends/family… it was a thought that consumed her, lest she be drunk…

She liked Veronica, but she liked _Paulette_ also, and she as confused, she was lost, she was… drunk, once again it seems.

 **until next time bitches**


End file.
